Chapter 395 - 380: The Situation

Chapter 395: Chapter 380: The Situation

In the early morning, an unusual tension shrouded the Mist Forest Marketplace.

Li Yuan emerged from his stone house and walked toward the management office along the main street. The shops along the way were open as usual, but the number of Loose Cultivators on the street was noticeably lower than before. The sound of patrol teams’ footsteps echoed frequently from every intersection.

The Spiritual Power fluctuations coming from the direction of the outpost were extremely dense.

Li Yuan arrived at a side hall in the management office, where a sweat-drenched Ji Wenchuan was directing a few assistants to move crates of Talismans and medicinal pills. Seeing Li Yuan enter, Ji Wenchuan immediately hurried over and reported in a low voice.

"Pavilion Master, the outpost is in complete chaos. The Sect suddenly transferred a large batch of elite disciples over last night, supposedly to reinforce the exploration team deep within the Ghost Mist Forest. What’s worse, a Golden Core Stage Elder has personally arrived to oversee the outpost."

The Golden Core Cultivators had entered the fray ahead of schedule.

Li Yuan’s gaze narrowed. According to the tacit understanding between the Primordial Yang Sect and the Evil Slaying Sect, Golden Core Cultivators were supposed to remain in the rear to hold the line. Now that a Golden Core Elder from the Primordial Yang Sect had come directly to the outpost, it meant that whatever had been discovered deep in the Ghost Mist Forest was important enough for them to tear off all pretenses.

"How are the supply preparations?" Li Yuan asked casually.

"They’re all ready. We can send them over at any time."

Li Yuan nodded, then turned and left the management office, personally escorting the supplies to the outpost. He needed to see the current situation there with his own eyes.

Upon arriving at the outskirts of the outpost, he found the defensive measures had been elevated by several levels. The checkpoint, originally managed by an Early-stage Foundation Establishment deacon, was now being strictly monitored by two Late-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivators. A grim fluctuation from an Array permeated the air—a sign that a Tier Three defensive grand Array was fully active.

Li Yuan used his marketplace supervisor’s Identity Token to enter the camp smoothly.

While handing over the supplies, his gaze swept inconspicuously across the camp. Disciples of the Primordial Yang Sect hurried about, their faces etched with the solemnity of impending battle. Then, outside a separate cluster of tents on the eastern side of the camp, Li Yuan noticed a few unusual figures.

Those individuals wore uniform grayish-white daoist robes, with a mountain peak insignia embroidered in gold thread on their cuffs.

’People from the Celestial Peak Sect.’

Li Yuan had seen this attire at the White Mirror Marketplace. A Nascent Soul Grand Sect spanning the Three States, their strength was colossal compared to the Primordial Yang Sect. The cultivation of these few Celestial Peak Sect disciples were all at the Late-stage Foundation Establishment. Though few in number, the surrounding Primordial Yang Sect disciples would subconsciously tread lighter and show obvious reverence when passing their tents.

People from the Celestial Peak Sect had already entered the Ghost Mist Forest region and were brazenly garrisoned in the Primordial Yang Sect’s outpost.

’This is definitely not a simple case of passing through and borrowing a place to stay. The higher-ups of the Primordial Yang Sect must have reached some kind of agreement with the Celestial Peak Sect. It’s even possible that they were pressured by the Celestial Peak Sect into sharing intelligence about the depths of the Ghost Mist Forest.’

The trend of multiple factions rapidly converging was now irreversible. The Primordial Yang Sect, the Evil Slaying Sect behind the Dark Abyss Association, and now the interfering Celestial Peak Sect. The secret hidden deep in this forest was pulling in all the top-tier powers of Liangzhou and even the surrounding major states.

After handing over the supplies, Li Yuan did not linger at the outpost and returned directly to his stone house in the marketplace.

The rapid deterioration of the situation made him feel a sense of urgency. He had to speed up his plans for Core Formation, but before that, he needed to give his physical foundation one final boost.

The doors and windows of the stone house were sealed, and the sound-insulating Array was activated.

Li Yuan sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, closed his eyes, and focused his mind.

In his equipment slot, the phantom image of the Profound Nether Bead flickered faintly. Although this blue-tiered item no longer had a physical form, its appended Golden Core perspective effect could be summoned at any time.

A higher-dimensional, stereoscopic perception instantly descended.

Li Yuan did not project this perception outward but turned it inward, locking his focus on his Golden Body Skill.

From the Golden Core perspective, the body’s structure was no longer simple flesh and bone, but an extremely precise and complex energy conduction network. The sinews and ligaments primarily trained by the Golden Body Skill appeared within this network as thick cables radiating a faint golden luster.

He could clearly see why his Golden Body Skill had been able to reach the mastery realm. The surface-level cables had been completely suffused with Spiritual Power, making them incredibly tough and capable of channeling explosive force without any obstruction.

But as his vision delved deeper, the root of the bottleneck was laid bare.

At the deepest tendon nodes, those connecting to the bone marrow and the core of the internal organs, the faint golden luster dimmed. These nodes were like rusted clasps. When Spiritual Power flowed to them, its penetration rate was less than twenty percent. Most of the power was deflected by the nodes’ tough outer shells, unable to truly permeate and strengthen them from within.

’I can only wait for it to slowly permeate and strengthen over time.’

Li Yuan opened his eyes and retracted the Golden Core perspective.

Having sorted out his thoughts on body cultivation, Li Yuan took the opportunity to inspect his Demon Essence Skill cultivation.

Deep within his Dantian, pure Demonic Qi was like a pool of profound black water, calm and restrained. His Demon Essence Skill had already reached the perfection realm, with no further progress possible in the Foundation Establishment Stage. Combined with his Fire-Fiend Integration, which allowed for lossless conversion between Spiritual Power and Demonic Qi at any time, he was absolutely confident in his current precision and total control over Demonic Qi.

As long as he could find a Core Formation environment rich in Demonic Qi, with the heaven-defying fifty-percent success rate boost from his Demon Pill Creation, he was highly confident he could condense a Top Grade Demon Qi Golden Core.

His plan for a dual Core Formation was steadily taking shape.

In the breaks between his cultivation sessions, Li Yuan did not relax his monitoring of the outside world.

He closed his eyes again, fully extending the sensory net of his Spirit Vein Affinity along the underground Spirit Vein branches deep into the Ghost Mist Forest. His doubled perception range allowed him to sit in his stone house and perceive the goings-on in more than half of the Ghost Mist Forest.

In the sensory feedback from a hundred zhang underground, points of light were densely packed.

Two exploration teams from the Primordial Yang Sect had already broken through the multiple outer obstacles and were less than twenty li from the central area he had calculated. Two dense clusters of Spiritual Power fluctuations were advancing slowly but steadily, and along the way, the Spiritual Power signatures of Tier Two Demon Beasts were constantly being extinguished by their joint efforts.

Meanwhile, on the exploration teams’ flanks and even deeper in, the forces of the Dark Abyss Association were equally active.

At least three squads of Demon Cultivators were roaming the depths. Their movements were extremely secretive, deliberately avoiding a direct confrontation with the Primordial Yang Sect. Like a pack of patient wolves, they weaved through the area, clearly also searching for the entrance to that crucial ruin.

「It was Midnight.」

The stone house was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Li Yuan took the wooden box containing the Artifact Embryo for his Lifebound Spiritual Artifact from his storage bag and opened it.

The dark silver, shuttle-shaped Artifact Embryo lay quietly on a cushion of soft jade cotton. A faint, dark red, bloody light seeped from the fine patterns on its surface. After fifty-nine consecutive days of being nourished by his essence blood, the embryo had already formed an inseparable, intimate connection with his consciousness.

’The final day.’

Li Yuan raised his right hand and forced a drop of extremely condensed life-essence blood from his fingertip. Encased in Spiritual Power, the bead of blood slowly dripped down, precisely seeping into the core pattern on the embryo’s surface.

A dark red light flashed fiercely on the embryo’s surface before completely merging with it, like milk blending with water. The entire embryo emitted an extremely low hum, as if some slumbering life had finally completed its gestation and let out its first heartbeat.

In his Sea of Divine Sense, the text on his panel flickered violently.

[Source Resonance (Blue) Permanence Condition Met (60/60)]

[Source Resonance (Blue) has become a permanent entry.]

Following the panel’s notification, the Spiritual Power within Li Yuan’s body instantly began to boil violently.

It wasn’t the out-of-control chaos of cultivation deviation, but rather a rapid expansion as his capacity was forcibly widened. The borders of his Dantian violently expanded outward, supported by an formless power, while the width and resilience of his meridians were also drastically enhanced at the same time.

The base thirty percent increase in his total Spiritual Power was permanently solidified. At the same time, due to the perfect fusion between the Artifact Embryo and his consciousness, the resonance bonus directly reached the limit for his current stage.

With both effects stacked, his total Spiritual Power cap was forcefully raised by nearly forty percent. Adding the inherent twenty percent foundation from his Foundation Establishment, his current Spiritual Power reserves had reached a terrifying level unattainable by an ordinary Foundation Establishment Perfection Cultivator.

The utterly full Spiritual Power surged endlessly within him, bringing an unprecedented sense of confidence and power.

Li Yuan returned the Lifebound Spiritual Artifact Embryo to his storage bag. Even after its entry was made permanent, this special artifact’s physical form remained, awaiting further forging and upgrades in the future.

With the permanence of Source Resonance, the special equipment slot was once again empty.

Without hesitation, Li Yuan extended the perception of his Spirit Vein Affinity through the subterranean network, instantly reaching the depths of the Stone Wilderness in Mozhou. He locked onto the large Spirit Vein sealed by an ancient Restriction.

With a thought, he issued the command.

"Equip."

[Equipped: Large Spirit Vein (Complete) — Special Slot]

[Effect: Increases Spiritual Power quality by fifty percent; enables automatic Spiritual Power recovery at thirty percent of active recovery speed (stacks with active recovery); enables automatic cultivation at fifty percent of normal cultivation speed (stacks with normal cultivation).]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Break through to the Golden Core Realm on the Large Spirit Vein, or reach the Nascent Soul Realm in cultivation.]

Although the Spirit Vein’s physical form still slumbered one hundred and sixty zhang deep beneath Mozhou, the moment he equipped it, an incredibly profound sense of control traveled through the Earth Veins, crossed space, and connected directly to Li Yuan’s Sea of Divine Sense.

He had become the sole controller of this giant Spirit Vein, holding absolute authority over it.

As long as he was within the Spirit Vein’s coverage area, the massive amount of Spiritual Qi contained within this large Spirit Vein—its output frequency, flow direction, and even its concentration distribution—would be under his perfect and absolute control, just like one of his own limbs.